"Republican
Schwarzenegger has benefited from an improving economy that has trimmed the deficit; legislative accomplishments that have picked off key
Angelides campaign planks; and the bill-signing-of-the-day perks of incumbency. He looks more like the affable moderate of the 2003 recall and less the bombastic conservative of 2005," writes Kate Folmar in the Merc News.
"
Compare that with Angelides, who has been hobbled by a scattershot message, middling fundraising, difficulty coaxing media attention away from his celebrity opponent and campaign miscues. Many voters who meet Angelides in person leave impressed, but this is a state of 36 million people."
"The ensuing cycle has gone something like this: Angelides lags in the polls. So it's harder to raise money. So he runs run fewer TV ads extolling his vision for California. So few people know him. And . . . repeat."
"'
People in the business,' Democratic strategist
Chris Lehane said, '
call it the death spiral.'"
When
Bob Mulholland calls today, Lehane will reiterate he was just saying what others in the biz are saying, and that it's not his own belief.
"Lehane and other consultants cautioned that the political dynamics could still be jolted in Angelides' favor -- but time is of the essence."
Trying to get out of the death spiral, Angelides turned this weekend to Iraq. "The Democratic candidate for governor of California said Sunday that if elected
he would call immediately on President Bush to withdraw California National Guard troops from Iraq."
Sounds like one heck of a political Hail Mary.
"'I will do everything in my power, as governor, to bring our National Guard units home,'
Phil Angelides said."
"Angelides, the state treasurer, acknowledged he could not recall the troops on his own. He said he would consider filing a lawsuit or taking other steps against the Bush administration to seek their return."
"A spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign,
Katie Levinson, said in a statement that Angelides' remarks 'are just more of the same irresponsible political rhetoric.'"
Dan Walters writes "As Republican
Arnold Schwarzenegger churns toward a probable re-election as California's governor, those who chart the careers of politicians are increasingly looking past his duel with Democrat
Phil Angelides and
assessing the potential contenders four years hence."
"Assuming Schwarzenegger is re-elected, the identity of who is elected as his successor in 2010 has meaning beyond the already substantial fact that the governor of the nation's most populous and influential state is an important political figure."
Walters drops the names of
Bruce McPherson,
Steve Poizner,
Jerry Sanders,
Antonio Villaraigosa,
Gavin Newsom,
Steve Westly,
John Garamendi,
Bill Lockyer,
Jack O'Connell, and
Jerry Brown.
Does this mean
Mel Gibson is officially out of the race?
The Bee's Kevin Yamamura writes "California Democratic Party Chairman
Art Torres downplayed the fact that some of the state's most powerful Democrats
have appeared with Schwarzenegger at his bill signings this month."
"'Well, you're going to see Governor Angelides standing with Republicans signing bills once he takes office,' Torres said at the Sacramento Press Club. 'A governor, whatever party he or she is in, is going to have the opportunity ... to take credit for legislation proposed by the opposing party.'"
"State GOP Chairman
Duf Sundheim responded: 'I must have been sleeping, because during the
Gray Davis era, I never saw any Republicans standing at those signing ceremonies.'"
"Actually, Davis took a liking to at least one Republican -- state Sen.
Maurice Johannessen. The Redding lawmaker provided crucial votes for the budget and had multiple bills signed, including those helping his car-collector friends. Davis later appointed him to run the Department of Veterans Affairs."
Speaking of those aforementioned Democrats, looks like
one of the guv's Democratic beneficiaries is headed to court. "
A lawsuit to topple Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to assume substantial control over the Los Angeles Unified School District is expected to ignite a court battle that will hinge on whether the state Legislature had the power to intervene on the mayor's behalf," writes the LAT's Maura Dolan.
"
L.A. school officials said they would file a lawsuit within the next couple of weeks to strike down a law that the Legislature passed to pave the way for Villaraigosa's initiative. The California attorney general's office will defend the law, but the mayor also is arranging for a private lawyer to help protect his plan."
Jim Herron Zamora
looks at the race for attorney general for the Chron.
"Democrat
Jerry Brown is portraying his rival, state Sen.
Chuck Poochigian, as a right-wing 'extremist' linked to
President Bush, while the Fresno Republican has hit back calling the Oakland mayor a 'flaky liberal,' unable to control his city's spiraling homicide rate."
"For both candidates, the early advertising strategy bears some risk because their budgets are limited and the November ballot is crowded by the governor's race and some high-profile initiatives. In addition, many polls indicate that voters are preoccupied with issues, such as the Iraq war and gasoline prices, that have little connection to the attorney general's race."
"'It may seem early but it makes sense for both candidates, but for different reasons,' said
Bruce Cain, UC Berkeley political science professor. 'The normal campaign is to present yourself first in an ad, then attack second, but after the Swift Boat attacks (on John Kerry) in 2004, that has all changed.'"
George Skelton takes a look at
why former governor Jerry Brown is running.
"'Because I know how the state works. I think I can provide some perspective and some wisdom….'"
"I believe my whole life has prepared me for this."
"Not just his life in varied public offices, but his upbringing."
"His late father, Pat Brown, was an attorney general who got elected governor. So was his dad's duck-hunting buddy,
Earl Warren. 'They both loved this job,' Brown recalled."
"'I'm just steeped in public service, based on my father's life,' he continued. 'That was the dinner table experience.'"
"Brown keeps being drawn to political office because it's in his blood. He's addicted to the power and the limelight. He'll likely grab some from the governor and legislative leaders if he gets back to town."
Hey, if nothing else, it sure would be entertaining...
"Starting Tuesday, U.S. District Judge
Jeremy Fogel will hold an unprecedented four-day hearing in San Jose to
explore whether the method the state uses to execute inmates violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Fogel has effectively put a temporary halt to executions in California as he considers the legal challenge from death row inmate
Michael Morales, who in February was hours from receiving a fatal dose of drugs when he was given a reprieve," reports Howard Mintz in the Merc News.
"Other states have held hearings to examine lethal injection issues, but the California case is expected to be the most thorough inquiry to ever unfold in a courtroom. Fogel already broke new ground this spring when he toured San Quentin's death chamber to get a first-hand look at the mechanics of an execution."
"'I think the Morales case and these hearings will be the most critical events of all the events that have happened in this area over the past year,' said
Deborah Denno, a Fordham University professor and leading expert on lethal injection."
Finally, from our
What's Under Your Robe Files, "Circuit Judge
Brandt C. Downey III of Clearwater (Fla.) apologized today for
repeatedly viewed pornography on a computer in his chambers."
"At a hearing this morning before the Florida Supreme Court, Downey said he was sorry and was begged for forgiveness. The Court publicly reprimanded him. The Supreme Court accepted an agreement in which the judge admitted accessing pornographic Internet sites but allows him to remain on the bench until his term expires January first."
The porn, however, will become property of the state.